female rat behavior

Question
QUESTION: why are my female rats peeing on the plastic shelves & in their sleeping area & is there anything I can do to stop this?

ANSWER: How old are they, for starters.


---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: my rats are about 6-8months old & this is a new behavior that they didn't used to do. now they have started pooping  on the shelves as well. we are constantly cleaning it up & we have to clean them every time we take them out. is there any thing we can do to change this behavior?

Answer
Yes, make them little litter boxes and put them in the areas that they are going most.  Pick up the droppings they are leaving on the shelves and put in the litter boxes.  You can use anything you want for a litter pan, even a shoe box for starters, or a plastic shallow food storage container.....fill with aspen or something they can dig and bury the droppings with.  My rats are litter trained but one of the males decided he wants to go in the corner and every day he left a heaping pile of pooh for me (oh joy!)  so I just pushed the litter box into the corner and now he is using the box again.

They are weird I tell ya....and because they cant talk we have to guess our way around them, but they are pretty easy to figure out once you have been through raising enough of them brats.    :)